Build:R/Me Famine Farmer
The Famine Farmer is a Ranger build meant to easily solo many bosses in the Factions and Nightfall campaigns by using Famine combined with energy denial provided by Mesmer skills. Attributes and skills name="famine farmer" prof=range/mesme wilder=12+1+3 exp=2 inspir=10 domina=8faminewrackshacklesof failureempathyunguentchaserdefense/build Equipment *Druid's Armor, with a Rune of Superior Wilderness Survival and a mask with +1 Wilderness Survival. *For the weapon set I suggest both of the following: ** A weapon that provides Activation Time and Recharge modifiers for Inspiration magic, such as the Handsmasher. ** A flatbow or longbow on which the modifiers do not matter (this bow is merely to pull some bosses with). Usage * Run to the boss and pull him into a location where he and his mobs cannot hit you with their attacks (Behind a tree, around a ledge, etc). * Set Famine and put Spirit Shackles, Spirit of Failure, and Empathy on the boss. Refresh these as needed. * If the boss can cast spells on you, keep Troll Unguent up during this time. * Once the boss is out of energy due to Spirit Shackles begin to spam Mind Wrack on him in addition to the hexes. * Most bosses fall very quickly after their energy is gone, in under a minute. Counters * Because of the nature of how the build works it is only effective against bosses that use ranged attacks and have poor spell damage. Variants * Replace Storm Chaser with Illusion of Haste and allocate some attributes into Illusion magic if the threat of being Crippled on the way to the boss is high, as in Arborstone * Drop Troll Unguent and/or Whirling Defense for more pressure if you know you won't need them for the run. *Some replacements include: ** Serpent's Quickness (spam Mind Wrack faster) ** Wastrel's Worry (more spammable damage) ** Backfire (for spell caster bosses) ** Energy Tap (for quicker draining) ** Diversion (for Zarnas Stonewrath, to disable his Stone Daggers, or for Byzzr Wingmender, to disable his Signet of Rejunivation) ** Cry of Pain (for interupting and damage) Notes This build has been used to farm the following bosses: * Chkkr Thousand Tail * Razortongue Frothspit (Pull his group to ledge infront of the Shrine and use Empathy to kill the Creeping Carps under the Priest's heals) (UPDATE: You can now merely kill his mob with henchmen then flag them off) * Byzzr Wingmender (Usually easier in hard mode.) * Chkkr Brightclaw (Be watchful of the Undergrowth/Dragon Moss patrol that goes by the stairs every minute or so) * Craw Stonereap (Bring Henchmen to kill the wardens, then flag them away.) * Zarnas Stonewrath (He commonly has a huge energy pool and spams Stone Daggers instead of attacking with his wand. Because of this it is quicker to take Backfire on this run and kill him that way, noting that he will not kill himself through Backfire so you have to use Empathy on him when he is low. Diversion can also work, as Zarnas will resort to attacking when his Stone Daggers is disabled. His energy can be drained quite easily after.) * Meril Stoneweaver (The pillars in the room will not stop her from wanding you. Use the wall at the entrance for cover. Cover your hexes with Mind Wrack.) * Ritualist's Construct (easier in Hard Mode, Song of the Mists slows down in NM, he attacks often enough in HM for it not to be a problem. He can be pulled alone) With the Advent of Henchman Flagging (killing the mobs around the boss, then sending them off your screen to solo the boss and get the drop) there are probably many more bosses that can potentially be farmed with this. So far the following have been tried and were successful: * Chidehkir (Use Ignorance for faster kill, sometimes his energy regen is unnaturally high and Shackles isn't enough to keep him down) * Chiossen * Chehbaba Roottripper * Meynsang the Sadistic * Nundak The Archer * Terob Roundback * Lieutenant Shagu * Stsou Swiftscale * Eshau Longspear (Theres a giant rock you can glitch him around so he cant hit you) * Nehpek the Remorseless R/Me Famine Farmer